When breaking school rules is the right move

MARNIE McKIMMIE

January 21, 2015

Traditional classroom rules such as “sit still and eyes on the board” and “no eating in class” are being scrapped as experts battle to stem chronic disease linked to obesity, poor nutrition and sedentary living.

New strategies are needed for modern problems. And research has shown simple low-cost changes in the day- to-day running of schools can help boost physical and mental health and protect a generation of children by challenging social norms and overhauling habits and mindset.

Mounting pressure from the rise of intense junk-food marketing has already seen in-class fruit and vegetable snacks emerge as a valuable tool to trigger healthy changes in taste buds.

Students are also being urged to wobble in chairs and stand up often, now that long periods of sitting has been labelled “the new smoking” and recognised as increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and some cancers. Researchers are now trying to work out how tomorrow’s workforce can be taught to “think on their feet”.

And the overuse of social media and online games, with constant focus on small screens, has meant cyber-bullying experts such as Professor Donna Cross from Telethon Kids Institute see school playground and classroom hours as crucial scheduled-in “face-to-face” time needed to hone communication and social skills.

“Some people say we need to leave schools alone and they cannot be expected to change the world and their job is to educate,” said Terry Slevin, director of education and research at Cancer Council WA.

“But schools continue to play a more powerful and influential role than that.

“School is still the best place for us to effect real change as a community. It brings together those who create and care for the next generation and it influences behaviour patterns.

“Kids are also exposed to beliefs and actions of other families.

“Whether they like it or not, schools are the playing field for testing social norms and modelling behaviour.

“For example, eating in the classroom used to be heresy but a change in opinion was needed to try and get kids to try eating healthy food and adopt healthy eating patterns through the Crunch&Sip program. This gives them a chance to eat differently to what they eat in the playground.”

Following success with anti-smoking, alcohol remained a frontier that many schools had not yet addressed, said Mr Slevin. Many were continuing with “questionable practices”, such as fund-raising by selling bottles of wine or from the bar proceeds of a quiz night. This sent the message to students that “the maximum consumption of alcohol is good for the school”.

Even in the area of sun protection, where peer-reviewed research on skin cancer data trends had shown a recent downturn, there was still more to do.

“The Education Department needs to mandate a decent sun-protection policy,” Mr Slevin said. “At the moment, schools get only vague guidelines which do not specify minimum standards of protection. Each school is given the freedom to interpret these and the result is that standards vary greatly between schools.

“UV is a class-one carcinogen, thus UV matters are correctly subject to duty-of-care requirements in schools. Yet schools will still allow kids to swim without rashies and staff to be on duty without hats.

“A lawsuit alleging breach of duty of care by a school to a kid sunburnt at a sports day should not be surprising. We also call for the government to fund more shade in high schools and include shade in the original building and playground design. Too often it is an afterthought, which makes it more expensive.”

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Health+Medicine is supported by a grant from Healthway (the WA Health Promotion Foundation) with the involvement of The National Heart Foundation (WA division), Cancer Council of WA, Asthma Foundation of WA, Australian Medical Association (WA), Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, FPWA Sexual Health Services, School of Population Health University of WA, Arthritis & Osteoporosis Foundation of WA and Diabetes WA.